Have you taken a backup? Old GST data to be archived from GST portal after September 30, 2024 Download the data now before September 30, 2024
The Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) announced two days ago that after September 30, 2024, taxpayers will no longer be able to access GST return data older than seven years on the GST portal. GSTN, in an advisory, said that the 2017 September data is being archived and removed from the portal.#sr_widget.onDemand p, #stock_pro.onDemand p{font-size: 14px;line-height: 1.28;} .onDemand .live_stock{left:17px;padding:1px 3px 1px 5px;font-size:12px;font-weight:600;line-height:18px;top:9px} #sr_widget.onDemand .sr_desc{margin:0 auto 0;} #sr_widget.onDemand .sr_desc{color: #024d99;margin-top:10px;} #sr_widget.onDemand .crypto .live_stock .lb-icon{8px 6px 5px 3px !important} #sr_widget.crypto.onDemand a.text{border-bottom:1px solid #ccc;padding-bottom:5px;display:block;width:100%} #sr_widget.onDemand .sr_desc .text p, #stock_pro.onDemand .sr_desc .text p{font-size:12px;font-weight:400;} "As per GST portal data policy, data for view of taxpayers to be retained for seven years only. Therefore, the same data policy is being implemented on the GST portal. Thus, return data will not be available to view beyond 7 years for taxpayers," said GSTN in its advisory dated September 24, 2024.
What does this advisory mean for GST-registered persons?
According to the advisory by GSTN, this data archival exercise is going to be a monthly activity going forward, and hence, on October 1, 2024, data from September 2017 will be taken down from the GST portal, and so on and so forth.However, this exercise started last month as GST returns were filed for the first time in July 2017, which completed seven years recently. "Accordingly, on 01st August 2024 return filed for July 2017 has been archived and on 01st September 2024, data for August 2017 has been archived. Hence, hereby the taxpayers are advised to download their relevant data from the GST portal for any future reference, if required," said GSTN.
What might be the impact of this data archival advisory for GST-registered persons
ET Wealth Online asked various experts to share their opinions about what might be the impact of more than seven years of GST return data being removed from the GST portal. Here's what they say:
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No new GST notices can be sent for such archived data
Saurabh Agarwal, Tax Partner, EY India: GST notices under Section 73 (non-fraud cases) and Section 74 (fraud cases) can be issued within 3 or 5 years, respectively, from the date of filing the annual return. Since the deadline for filing the annual return is in December of the following year, notices can be issued within a maximum of 5 years and 9 months. After this period, the issuance of notices is no longer valid. Additionally, starting from FY 2024-25, notices must be issued within 42 months from the date of furnishing the annual return. Therefore, notices cannot be issued for periods older than 7 years, as they would exceed the allowable notice period.Gaurav Gupta, Founder and Managing Partner, Gaurav Suresh & Associates: This will act as a relief, as the notification silently specifies the period till when GST Litigation can be initiated. It is now clear that the Dealer or Service Provider shall maintain records beyond 7 years only in case of Pending Litigation. This notification itself is a shield against undue harassment by the GST Department. The government cannot send notices for such old data which is being archived unless the notice is an extension to an ongoing enquiry.
The old, archived GST data can still be used as evidence in ongoing litigations
Saurabh Agarwal, Tax Partner, EY India: While data is archived by the GST department and no longer available on the GST portal, we understand it will still be preserved by the government in its archives and may be used for future litigation purposes. In any ongoing proceedings, relevant data would already have been downloaded by the adjudicating officer. Therefore, it is unlikely that data would be unavailable for any legal matters related to any litigation. Sanjay Chhabria, IDT lead at Nexdigm: This Data Archival Policy recommended by the Law Committee and was agreed upon by the GST Council during its 48th meeting. While the Law Committee also envisaged creation of a separate archival data lake to enable both the taxpayers and tax officers to download the data for litigation purposes, the same appears to be amiss at this moment. Ironically, the data retention policy kicks in at a time when the GST Appellate Tribunals are about to begin functioning and being the last fact-finding authority, the availability of data, particularly that pertaining to input tax credit (ITC), would be critical for the litigants.
The old, archived data will be inaccessible to you, but the government may store it so you can request access to it
Gaurav Gupta, Founder and Managing Partner of Gaurav Suresh & Associates: The Government Department Maintains copy of the data in a repository which can be retrieved on special request which in the language of the department are called as RUDs (Relied Upon Documents).
Apoorv Phillips, Senior Associate, Sirmacs Consultancy Services (Law Firm): If you analyse the Central/State Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 it does not mention any specific time period for which the records are to be mandated by either the Central Government or the State Government. There is no mandate upon the government to store records, however, as the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 comes under the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, any data collected by it, including your GST Returns, can be preserved and stored as a public record under the Public Records Act, 1993, for an indefinite period. However, the same is not mandatory on the Central Government, and moreover on recommendation of the Director General Archives the said records can also be destroyed, at any moment. Hence, it is your own responsibility to maintain your records and download it before its archived and removed from the GSTR portal.
What should you do?
Various experts suggest measures you should take to tackle this data archival issue. These measures include:Download and safely store your September 2017 GST data before September 30, 2024
Saurabh Agarwal, Tax Partner, EY India: We strongly advise taxpayers to download and store their return data before it is archived to ensure access for future compliance or litigation or reference needs. Specifically, for returns related to September 2017, the deadline to download this data is September 30, 2024.Gopal Mundhra, Partner, Economic Laws Practice: The GSTN advisory categorically advises taxpayers to download their relevant data from the GST portal for any future reference, if required. Therefore, the taxpayers must be diligent and download the relevant data before archival. Ideally, a larger period of storage / retention of GST data should have been given in those cases where there are ongoing litigations. In other cases, 7 years could be sufficient given that the taxpayers have the option to download the data before archival.
The Income Tax Department might reference the archived GST data for tax demand notice
Apoorv Phillips, Senior Associate, Sirmacs Consultancy Services (Law Firm): There are other laws apart from GST Act that requires maintenance of tax records, especially income tax law which requires you to maintain books of accounts for a period of 8-10 years, or maybe even more, depending upon whether you are an individual, company or any other entity. Now, as GST data such as Sales and Purchases are required to compute the Profit and Loss of the company under the P&L Accounts, which is used in the computation of the Income Tax liability at the time of Income Tax Return filing, it is advised to save and maintain your GST Returns and all data pertaining to GST for a period of at least 10-15 years. For example: under Section 147 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, the Income Tax Department can for any assessment year within 10 years, require you to submit required documents and create a demand. Moreover, even under Companies Act, 2013 and Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008, books of accounts are to be retained for a period of 8 years.
Cross-verify the downloaded data with GST portal data before September 30, 2024
CA Hardik Kakadiya, President, Chartered Accountants Association Surat: In an identified case, data when viewed on GSTN Portal is different than that downloaded in PDF. For E.g. S.17(5) reversals are visible on HTML web page, but in PDF it disappears. "The government should provide an Archive Portal for such old, archived data, because backing up the data in PDF does not preserve the sanctity of those records in certain cases noticed by us."The screenshot below shows the GST data accessed from the GSTR portal
The image below is the screenshot of the PDF file downloaded from the GST portal
Source: Chartered Accountants Association, Surat— Infosys_GSTN (@Infosys_GSTN) — caas_org (@caas_org) #sr_widget.onDemand p, #stock_pro.onDemand p{font-size: 14px;line-height: 1.28;} .onDemand .live_stock{left:17px;padding:1px 3px 1px 5px;font-size:12px;font-weight:600;line-height:18px;top:9px} #sr_widget.onDemand .sr_desc{margin:0 auto 0;} #sr_widget.onDemand .sr_desc{color: #024d99;margin-top:10px;} #sr_widget.onDemand .crypto .live_stock .lb-icon{8px 6px 5px 3px !important} #sr_widget.crypto.onDemand a.text{border-bottom:1px solid #ccc;padding-bottom:5px;display:block;width:100%} #sr_widget.onDemand .sr_desc .text p, #stock_pro.onDemand .sr_desc .text p{font-size:12px;font-weight:400;}
This story originally appeared on: India Times - Author:Faqs of Insurances
